What Ray really wanted just then was to plop down and relax. The battle, the death, the constant use of spells and True Mana shards, they had all taken a toll on him.
But Mary had actually taken the time to warn him. The least he could do was show up.
It took his exhausted body more time than was probably ideal, but he managed it. When he reached the spot on the spire where the bridge was connecting it to the cliff, he found Mary Felds there. She had brought her sister’s body with her. Alice’s corpse rested at her feet. The sight made Ray’s heart squeeze, but what stood before them was what arrested his attention.
There was basically a small battalion on the bridge. They wore similar uniforms as the guards they had fought, though more expressive and slightly richer-looking.
What was stranger was the mounts they were riding. The guards’ armour and weapons had made Ray think of a more medieval-ish society, so he assumed they would be riding horses. What the mounted members of the battalion instead rode on were dinosaurs.
Literal, living, breathing raptors that were bigger than ostriches. Ray couldn’t help but stare.
“Ah, is that the companion you indicated was closer by?” the man in front asked. His armour was more gold than black. A long silver braid swung down from under his lobster-tail helm. Clearly, the guy was the leader.
Mary looked over. Even from the distance, Ray could see how her expression was simply… dead. It wasn’t even the coldness she normally held onto. Just empty. “Yes, that’s him.”
They called him in, but Ray was already walking over.
“Who are you?” Ray asked once he was within speaking distance.
He couldn’t help but be tense. After all, the dino-riding man’s subordinates had tried to kill Ray and Mary and everyone else not that long ago. They were the ones responsible for Alice’s death, even if indirectly.
“As I have been explaining to your companion here,” the man said, indicating Mary. “We are the rightful citizens of the Kingdom of Everstead. We were alerted about the commotion on Spire 14, so we came to investigate, and once we learned the real reason behind the battle, we hurried here as fast as we could to halt the needless bloodshed.”
Ray’s eyes found Alice again. Mary was looking down at her dead sister too. He had to wonder what Alice had said with her dying breath to calm Mary down like that. She had been… a little unhinged, when Ray had left. Not that he blamed her.
“You believe them?” Ray asked the only other person in the vicinity he knew was real.
Because he was starting to wonder the exact placement of these foreign people. Well, maybe from their viewpoint, he was the foreigner here.
But it was starting to become clear that these people believed they belonged here. Even without the consideration that they thought themselves a part of some kingdom, Ray was beginning to wonder if they were actual people or if they were some strange simulation of the System to populate the Second Floor.
“We have no other option.” Despite the deadened expression, Mary’s voice trembled a little with suppressed emotion. “They outnumber us. What would you do instead? Fight?”
She put so much emphasis on the idea of combat, Ray couldn’t even consider it without feeling embarrassed.
“It’s hard to trust when your people have been trying to kill us,” Ray said.
The man on dino-back nodded. “Of course. We understand the predicament. Regardless, I suggest considering your options. We can assist you, if you’d like, but if you choose to ignore it, then you can move on as you see fit.”
“Why would you help us? Also, you said you learned about the real reason behind the commotion. What real reason, and where did you learn it from?”
“All legitimate questions that we will be happy to answer. But we are offering you our hand in kindness. Would it not be better for everyone to go to a more civilized spot and conduct business there?”
Ray still wasn’t sure he wanted to trust any of them, but Mary was right. They had little choice. She was already walking forward in acceptance, her sister’s body in her arms.
Sighing, Ray followed her. “Alright, then. Let’s go.”
----------------------------------------
Ray was thankfully granted a dinosaur to ride too. He was a little apprehensive about riding a beast that could very well rip his head off with little trouble, but they appeared tame enough. So, shutting his fear down, Ray got on and rode off with the rest.
It was a uniquely strange experience. There wasn’t much bounce to it. It almost made him think the saddle had some strange suspension mechanism going on, but that couldn’t be it.
As they travelled and he got to see more of this Everstead kingdom, he was definitely sure they didn’t have anything as advanced as suspension.
Ray’s earlier assumptions were correct. The tech level made him think of medieval times. Maybe early Renaissance, at best. He saw carts on the dirt road, houses made of mud and thatch, some wooden huts here and there. Very basic, primitive stuff.
“You had questions, yes?” the leader asked Ray and Mary.
The silver-haired man had introduced himself as Caleb. He was the lord of this land, the caretaker of everything on Cliff Three, as he called it.
They were at the head of the procession, along with a couple of others from her group. After sending word down the spire, they had waited until the rest of Mary’s pseudo-Faction had come in. The lack of mounts meant most travelled on foot, but there were just enough raptors to allow two of the more powerful members to accompany Ray and Mary at the head of the party.
One of whom, strangely, was the guy who had passed Ray earlier on to stop the guards from setting the Lostcaller loose on them. His name was Timothy. Apparently, Ray had succeeded in saving the fellow. He had even thanked Ray as they had started their journey.
Despite the end of the fighting, the mood was sombre and still tense. Most of the Denizens didn’t suddenly trust these people who claimed it was all a big mistake.
For good reason, Ray supposed. This mistake had caused death. Alice wasn’t the only one who had perished.
This was true for both sides, actually. Just as many of the Denizens held onto hard faces and hostile postures, Ray noticed that several people from Everstead were shooting them unfriendly looks. He had to wonder if any of them were related to the guards who had died on the spire in any way.
“We did,” Mary said. She held her sister’s body close to her own on the mount. “Please explain how exactly you came to learn about us and why you are assisting us.”
“Of course.” Caleb cleared his throat. “Please hold any further questions till I am done.”
Ray had been intrigued they were capable of understanding each other’s speech. But this wasn’t an unprecedented phenomenon. After all, the Sylvans hadn’t spoken English either and communication had occurred seamlessly between them all.
Another thing that made Ray frown a lot. The guy was called Caleb. That was such an Earth name, it really threw him for a loop.
Caleb’s story took his mind off of wondering about the nature of the monsters. Apparently, the Everstead kingdom’s leaders had been informed by a highly respected merchant that the people rising up the Spire were actually the Denizens they were supposed to host, as a part of the Tower of Forging. Not the Imitators they were guarding against.
It was only very recently that their kingdom had become a part of the Tower, so they were still ironing out some kinks.
“Wait a minute,” Ray said. He looked around, noting the gigantic spires, the strange sky with the half-baked tornados. “Are you saying you aren’t part of the Tower itself?”
Caleb shook his head. “Not at all. We are the Everstead kingdom, on the southeastern corner of the Marsden continent. I believe you Denizens were transported here as part of your challenge.”
Ray was about to argue that assertion but he received a warning look from Mary. He kept quiet. For now. There was definitely something fishy going on, though, and he’d be damned if didn’t find out what it was.
“Does this highly respected merchant go by the name of Virko?” Mary asked.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“He does not.” Caleb stopped to think for a moment. “Although, the Halftyr did mention another of his kind was within this so-called Tower, and it was this other Halftyr he received the information from. I assume that is this Virko.”
“Ah, I see.”
Mary: Don’t reveal much about your specific Objectives. We don’t know how they relate to these people.
Ray: I’m aware.
She didn’t reply, and he figured she was sending a copy of that message to just about everyone in the group. It was best not to reveal anything they didn’t have to. They couldn’t trust the strangeness just yet.
But even if Ray couldn’t ask anything directly, he could at least take a peek at Caleb with Primordial Gauge. Hopefully, it wouldn’t alert him.
[Warning!]
Primordial Gauge has been blocked by Robes of the Velvet Night and Lord’s Heritage [Tier 8].
Ray scowled, though he quickly fixed his expression. Hopefully, no one had seen that. This was like Virko all over again. When Ray had tried to use the previous version of Primordial Gauge on the Halftyr merchant, he had been blocked by an item and a skill then too.
Annoying that this Lord had similar powers.
“How did you come to become a part of the Tower?” Mary asked.
“The Floor Lord selected us as part of his challenge. He said he would gladly share his profits from running the Floor with us so long as we cooperated. Why he picked us of all people is a mystery to me, though I imagine His Majesty is aware.”
“But we were fighting the Sylvan on the spire,” Ray said. “I was, at least. It’s wild to think we’d be attacked out of the blue by a Sylvan. You know, the people who are meant to be guiding the Denizens.”
Of course, there was more than enough proof that the Sylvans cared little about actually guiding anyone. In fact, if word of what had happened on the First Floor had gotten out, then Ray wouldn’t be surprised if that Sylvan had been out for vengeance.
But Ray was mostly trying to throw off Caleb. It was strange how the Sylvan hadn’t even spoken during their battle.
“I suspect that Sylvan wasn’t aware of you being Denizens and was convinced by the guards there to halt you,” Caleb said. “In case you were Imitators.”
Ray wasn’t totally convinced by that line of reasoning, but he also got the sense that poking holes into Caleb’s tapestry wasn’t going to do him much good here.
The truth would need to be discovered some other way.
He focused on the journey. Ray wasn’t the only one marvelling at the things they passed by on route to their destination. Instead of regular animals, the people in this world had apparently harnessed dinosaurs to do all their bidding, not just riding.
Small triceratopses were pulling carts and wagons along the dirt roads. Winged, feathery reptiles flitted overhead, scrolls bearing messages tied to their talons. There was even one girl carrying a dinosaur baby on her shoulder like it was a little pet or something. This place was a smidge insane.
They passed by farmsteads for what felt like an hour or two before arriving at a modest town. This they passed through as well, though there was a bit of fanfare there.
Someone had tipped off the townsfolk that there was a procession coming up. They thronged the streets to see the soldiers and the foreigners. Several pointed at Ray like he was mandril at a zoo with an especially colourful rear end. A couple of kids pointed and laughed at him too, and he gave those brats a nice middle finger.
Though, what were they laughing at? Was there some rumour circulating about him? No, couldn’t be just him. Almost all of the Denizens were subject to stares and whispers and giggles.
Even, Ray noticed with a grit of his teeth, the ones bearing the dead. They pointed unabashedly at Mary, disregarding the stony look on her face or the dead body of her sister cradled in her lap. They did the same for the other Denizens in the back who carried their fallen comrades.
“Apologies,” Caleb said, bowing his head a little. “Some people are not that sensitive.”
Sensitive? This wasn’t even about sensitivity when Ray stopped to think for a moment. Death was a sombre business. Shouldn’t they be hushed, perhaps a little fearful of what might have caused the deaths?
Even anger at the deaths of their own, like the kind some of the guards displayed, would have been preferable.
They passed through the town before long, and it was another hour or so before they finally reached their destination.
“Welcome,” Caleb said. “To my humble abode.”
“Doesn’t look very humble to me,” Timothy muttered.
Well, it was humble if the basis of comparison was the stuff back on Earth. But after all the mud huts and log cabins they had seen so far, a proper brick-and-mortar manor definitely looked like the height of comfort and luxury.
“Please, make yourselves at home.” Caleb clapped and the gates ahead opened. Several servants rushed out. “I will have my retainers assist and guide you. It is the least we can do after everything that has happened.”
----------------------------------------
Caleb said he would meet them all later where they could discuss matters together. First, the Denizens could rest, recuperate, and refresh themselves.
Ray got the best treatment he had enjoyed since this whole Tower business had started. An actual bath, a room to call his own, a comfy bed and couch, even some light refreshments with more food being cooked for a feast later.
He took the time to relax, to unwind like he hadn’t done in a while. It was so good to have running water cleanse him and take a bite out of a juicy apple.
All within an hour, though. What he really needed to do was think and talk.
Sending a message to Mary got him nothing. She was once again ignoring him. Ray thought he had heard her enquiring about burial options, and considering it was a private matter for her, he had decided to stay out of it. Even if something within him still curled into the foetal position with guilt and wanted to pay his respects to Alice.
A guard in front of Ray’s door, posted to apparently accommodate his every wish, decided to accompany him, apparently to “guide” him so he didn’t get lost in the manor.
“I’ll be fine,” Ray tried to insist. “Look, I’ve never gotten lost once in sewer levels, so a manor is a piece of cake for my navigational skills.”
That was a lie. Ray distinctly recalled losing his way and basically giving up on Vampire the Masquerade. But this guard didn’t need to know that.
“I insist, sir,” he said. No, Ray was the one insisting here, but the guard didn’t care. “It is my duty to ensure your stay here is as perfect as possible.”
Outside of being rude, Ray had no other recourse but to let the strange guy follow him. Thankfully, he stayed out when he reached Timothy’s room.
“Come in,” Timothy said after Ray knocked on his door. “Oh hey, Ray. Fancy meeting you here.”
Fancy was definitely the word to choose. Timothy was wearing an actual robe, his reddish-brown hair still wet from a shower. He was gently swirling a glass of what looked like chilled wine.
“You look like you’re enjoying yourself,” Ray said as he took a seat on the couch and tried the wine. It was a bit too sweet for his liking, but the chill refreshed him. He held up the glass. “They just bring this to you when you ask?”
“Yep! Five-star room service, if you ask me.”
Ray took some time to enjoy the wind, but he couldn’t keep the real question out of his mouth for long. “So, what do you think?”
“About what?”
“You know.” Ray shrugged his shoulders, less in noncommittal and more to indicate everything in general. “All this. These people, this kingdom, whatever all this is. There’s something fishy about it all.”
Timothy frowned. “I think you should relax a bit. You, and Mary.”
“Yeah, sure. But that doesn’t mean we can’t—”
“You guys went through a lot. We all did.” Timothy took a long sip of his wine, the ice clinking hard enough to fill in the gap while he drank before he resumed talking. “And now, we deserve to rest if only a for a bit. Maybe only for a day. Don’t think that lord is going to let us freeload here indefinitely. So while I’ve got time, I’m going to kick back and relax. I deserve it.”
It was Ray’s turn to frown. Relax? How could anyone relax when they might very well be in enemy territory for all they knew. But Timothy was unwilling to talk about anything tense.
And here Ray had thought he could make a new a friend by leveraging the fact that he had saved the guy. He did not want to befriend someone so… not on his wavelength. Ah, well. Mary had been kind of responsive the last few hours. Maybe there was some hope yet.
The thought of Mary Felds reminded him of her sister, and that made his heart fall.
Eventually, after another hour of talking about inconsequential things Ray honestly didn’t even remember after leaving Timothy’s room, they were all invited to the feast.
“Please,” Caleb said. He was dressed in finery—a brilliant green robe studded with small emeralds and a small circlet on his head like he was a prince of some kind. “Take a seat.”
Ray and the rest of the Denizens did so. Mary had also arrived at some point. She was dressed in her regular old white robes and armour. Her expression was still empty, though there was some of her old coldness in her despair-sunken eyes.
They had other guests too. Important personages of this area of the realm and the family members of Caleb.
The food was pretty good. Ray actually started thinking along the lines of Timothy. They had been missing a lot in the Tower. Scrumptiously roasted chicken, fish filleted and oven-baked, what tasted like alfredo fettucine. Ray’s stomach was really happy as the feast drew to a close.
“And now,” Caleb said after the dishes had been cleared and they had been served more wine. “It is now time we discussed the matter at hand—that of how we will be conducting ourselves while we are here.”
“We?” Mary asked. “You make it sound like you’ve already prepared how you want us to interact.”
Mary’s perceptive words made several of the dignitaries straighten in their chairs. They knew now they weren’t dealing with idiots.
“We have some ideas, yes,” Caleb said. “But before I explain our offer, we would like to hear what you have to say about your overall intentions in our kingdom.”
“You already know that from your merchant, don’t you? We have some System-mandated tasks and a challenge from the Floor Lord we need to complete while on the Floor. Once those are accomplished, we will be able to access the Third and final Floor of the Tower. That is the sum of all of our goals here.”
“Correct. We know as much. But what won’t know is the specifics. For instance, for all we know, one or more of these tasks you mention may end up being detrimental for us.”
Ray frowned. Of course. The conversation was always going to come back to knowing more about Ray and the rest of the Denizens. After all, they were foreigners here. That these people had welcomed them with open arms and such good treatment was already kind of a blessing.
It would have made just as much sense if they had thrown the Denizens into prison, if not outright kill them, after they had already clashed and killed some of their own.
“Well, we’ve given the general gist,” Ray said, taking the conversational reins from Mary. “I think you owe us a general explanation of what this deal entails too.”
The dignitaries and important personages all exchanged some quick glances, but Caleb’s eyes remained focused on the Denizens. “As you wish. Turnabout is fair play. You see, the deal we had in mind is thus—in return for us granting you the information, and perhaps the opportunities, to complete your Objectives, you would perform some tasks for us.”
“What kinds of tasks?” Mary asked.
“Ah, but here we get into the specifics again, don’t we?”
They were again at an impasse, neither side exactly willing to divulge the meat and potatoes of their intentions first. But Ray had other ideas. He realized that they were in the exact same position Mary had told him about when they had first met these people.
That their choices were very limited. Ray was not about to pass up this golden goose of a chance to learn more about this Floor.
“I don’t speak for the rest of my fellow Denizens,” Ray said, raising his voice. “But I for one am willing to sign onto this deal, provided I like the exact terms. So, let’s get down to business, shall we?”